William "Rookie" Davis, an 18-year-old right-handed pitcher taken by the New York Yankees in the 14th round of the 2011 MLB Draft (449th overall), sounds like the kind of draft pick the Yankees love to lay in the weeds for and take a flier on. Davis is a player who scouts apparently rated as a player talented enough to be taken in the first five rounds -- except for concerns about his contract demands.
Davis was expected to go sooner, perhaps even in the first three or four rounds. However, his monetary demands may have scared off some teams. Davis was the seventh pitcher — and sixth right-hander — to be picked by the 27-time World Series champions.
Yet, he was just the second high-school right-hander picked by the Yankees.
"We’ve had several calls and we were told he’d be drafted if we would drop the price some," said Davis’ father, Billy, adding a couple of other teams he declined to identify were on the verge of picking his son. "We were not willing to do it."
Major League Baseball loves to "slot" players into contract figures based on where they were drafted, but the Yankees have always been willing to ignore MLB's recommendations. In this case, if they can use their resources to convince Davis to forego college at East Carolina University it is a win for the Yankees. If they fail to sign him, no big deal because they only used a 14th-round pick.